What is the meaning of dying?

A fellow caregiver asked...

What is the meaning of dying? Where is my mother now?

Expert Answer

Barbara Repa, a Caring.com senior editor, is an attorney, a journalist specializing in aging issues, and the author of Your Rights in the Workplace (Nolo), now in its 10th edition.

This is the hardest of questions -- made especially hard since your mother isn't sitting beside you to give you an easy answer, like she probably used to do.

Both the meaning of dying -- beyond the end of life and we know it -- and where and whether a person exists after death depend on your own personal beliefs.

If you are floundering with this, consider discussing the issue and the possibilities with people you trust: friends, spiritual advisors, close family members. Also consider the old-fashioned method of going into a library or bookstore or library and immerse yourself in a title or two that just beckon to you for some reason or another.

And be prepared for surprises: Many people find that the death of someone close, particularly a parent, opens their hearts and minds to new ways of looking at the issue and to new beliefs.